Steering fluid top off

[Filipelol]

Hello guys, my steering has been noisy so I took battery and tray off to check the level and indeed the "dip stick" comes out dry so I need to top it off, a mechanic gave me about 400mml of vags fluid (G 004 000 M2), should I take as much as I can with a syringe and top off after so I have more "clean" fluid, or is there no point and should just top it off?

 

Edited 16 March, 2018 by Filipelol

[Bertie90]

question is, why are you low on it? it doesn't just disappear, or does it? 

 

take some out, have a look at the colour as it should be pink. If it's really dark then you need to have it changed. The fluid is cheap compared to a new power steering pump.

If it's still pink-ish then top it up but have it looked at.

[rum4mo]

"pink"?  Are you sure that you don't mean green?

[Filipelol]

Should be green, and by reading some threads some people have had to just top it off, car has 7 years now.

[aubrey]

When I did mine I did suck out the reservoir, low but not empty, with a syringe pump, poured in new fluid. Put the battery back and turned the steering lock to lock a few times. Battery out again and repeat.  I must of done that about 4 times until I used up all the new fluid I had. I thought that would achieve the highest freshness of new fluid.

[Filipelol]

9 hours ago, aubrey said:

When I did mine I did suck out the reservoir, low but not empty, with a syringe pump, poured in new fluid. Put the battery back and turned the steering lock to lock a few times. Battery out again and repeat.  I must of done that about 4 times until I used up all the new fluid I had. I thought that would achieve the highest freshness of new fluid.

You took the battery in and out 4 times ? I just topped mine, might have to do that in a few days.

[aubrey]

On my Roomster the reservoir is Under the battery. Since the steering pump is electric it needs power to work. So the battery had to be out to access the reservoir and connected to run the steering pump. In hindsight I should of used my jump leads to the battery terminals. It sounds more of a pain than it was, I obviously didn't reinstall fully and bolt the battery down every time.

I actually don't know if refreshing the fluid is even necessary. The steering felt no different afterwards. I just decided to do it and also change the gearbox oil after about 5 years. I think I'll do them both again this year as it's 10 years old now.

[Filipelol]

10 hours ago, aubrey said:

On my Roomster the reservoir is Under the battery. Since the steering pump is electric it needs power to work. So the battery had to be out to access the reservoir and connected to run the steering pump. In hindsight I should of used my jump leads to the battery terminals. It sounds more of a pain than it was, I obviously didn't reinstall fully and bolt the battery down every time.

I actually don't know if refreshing the fluid is even necessary. The steering felt no different afterwards. I just decided to do it and also change the gearbox oil after about 5 years. I think I'll do them both again this year as it's 10 years old now.

Mine is like yours, I had to remove the battery and tray to top off the fluid and is still as noisy, so next time I'm going to repeat the process and do the lock to lock see if it needs more fluid, did you feel a difference after changing the gearbox oil ? 

[aubrey]

Re Gearbox oil, yes. Immediately smoother. I had a little crunch sometimes, I seem to remember it was changing down to 2nd gear. But that immediately disappeared when the gearbox oil was changed and has never reoccured since.

[Filipelol]

3 minutes ago, aubrey said:

Re Gearbox oil, yes. Immediately smoother. I had a little crunch sometimes, I seem to remember it was changing down to 2nd gear. But that immediately disappeared when the gearbox oil was changed and has never reoccured since.

OEM fluid ?

[aubrey]

I used Fuchs Sintofluid FE75W